Monster Hunt: Jayne's Report
According to the tavern keeper, those working at the lumber mill had been hearing strange noises and had occasionally spotted what was described to the rest of us as a “huge monster.” Those at the mill were eager for someone to go into the woods in search of the monster to dispose of it. With such little information to go on, a group of us decided it was best to venture out north toward the source of the noise hopefully to gather information. At best we would slay whatever laid in wait out there. At worst we’d be killed by some huge, mysterious monster. The first evening of our journey we heard a noise in the woods that sounded less like a monster and more like somebody screaming - not necessarily in pain but certainly out of fright - and we gave chase. By nightfall we stumbled upon a clearing, a man who’d gotten himself up a tree, and two angry ogres. The group killed the ogres and the man introduced himself as Monsieur Millard … erm. Something. (His surname is something of a struggle to remember.) Millard was well dressed, strangely enough. He looked to be quite out of place in the wilds but described himself as a researcher working for the king who had spent a year on this island alone conducting his studies on the creatures that live here. This statement along with several disturbing pieces of information he knew about us and the others in our camp, including full names and causes of death of some of our lost party members, caused us all to be understandably suspicious. Millard did not seem too bothered by this however and willingly shared information on the monster in the woods. As it turns out, the monster was a hydra who lived in the lake about 200 ft to the east of where we were. He said there was a tower beside the lake that could be blown up with blasting powder (which we didn’t have) to help us fight the beast. The next morning, before we left for the lake, Bobby received a note from our strange new ally that was charmed in some way to communicate with all of us differently. I received a potion from him that another member of the group and I determined to be a salve of sorts that could be applied to a weapon to temporarily increase its damage. This salve appeared to be an original concoction of Millard’s. At the lake, the man was true to his word. We found both tower and blasting powder but the seeds of doubt had already been planted deeply within the group and two of us decided to investigate the tower first before blowing it up. From what I understand, there wasn’t much to be found in the tower itself and we lost the opportunity to take the hydra down with the structure itself but in the end we were successful in killing the creature. I am left as confused as ever by the results of our endeavors. This Millard person came to our aid multiple times as we fought the hydra, attacking unseen from the distance, though I swear I heard his voice at one point rallying me after several hits from the hydra’s many heads. At the end of the battle he showed up once more in the form of a ferret and led us to a bag of gold coins that was distributed to the group. Jarion and Jeremiah still do not trust this man while Bobby cheerily views him as an ally. I’m not sure what he said or did to Jarion in particular but something about Millard rubbed him the wrong way from the start. Bartholomew has the most sensible view - it is clear Millard has his own agenda and considerable skill if he’s managed to navigate this island alone for so long. At the moment we might be allies but that could easily change.